More Than ABC's and 123's: August 2012

This is my new classroom this year!!

This post will be mostly pictures but I hope you can get some ideas for your own classroom!

Dramatic play area....still a work in progress.

I used those 3M small hooks to put onto the back of a toy cubbie to hold our dress up hats.

Ohhh.....the beauty of organization before the children start school

Our school bought these pocket chart holder/rack things for us this year.....very nice of them but I just felt it was too bulky and I wanted my chart on my white board above our group rug so I re-purposed it into our dramatic play rack.

This has been my family tree for about 5 years. I made it and laminated after the first one I made my first year was ripped and wrinkled by the end of the year. Every year I send home an apple cut out of construction paper to each family with a note attached explaining to the families to please decorate their apple and add a family photo. We then attach all the apples to our tree and it stays up all year.
I made mine but I think these are cute!

So let's talk walls!!

In my new classroom I have a huge white board, I have never had one in a preschool class before.....I wasn't quite sure what to do with it.....Where was I going to put my circle board?? So I turned to good old Pinterest and found this tend in classrooms. Divide the board up with 'borders' ..... GENIUS!!! So I divided up our board into the areas we needed.

I have since found these AMAZING magnetic boarders!!! They are solid magnet on the back and work like a charm to divide up your white board! You have to check them out! Click the links above to see a bigger picture!

So my new favorite wall!!!

Options

I have plans for this board!!! Ok so I bought bamboo clothes pins and flat tacks and glued the tacks to the back of the clothes pin. I know I know GENIUS!!! Wish I could take credit but again....thank you pinterest! So these are my amazing plans. I took a picture of each of my kiddos holding a mini white board with their name on it. I am going to print out the pictures wallet size and attach them to each clothes pin so they will always have their art work in the same spot for them to view their masterpieces!

Let's talk PRESCHOOL ORIGINATION!!
This year, these are our cubbies, I went into the 'office supply' section of walmart and saw the ID badge holders and knew that is what I wanted to use for our cubbie tags. I then bought name stickers at the dollar section at Target and cut them and slide them into the ID badges. Perfect fit and I can re-use them each year!!!

HERE IS MY TEACHER BASKET
My teacher basket sits under my chair next to the circle carpet....now I don't always sit in a chair most of the time you will find me sitting on the carpet with the kiddos but every once in awhile especially during morning meeting, you will find me in the teacher chair. My basket holds all my calender pieces, stamps, stickers, our weather board pieces and our classroom shaker. I used to use a bell, for years I used a bell but I took my son to a music festival and I fell in love with this shaker, it was made in Nigeria and made out of nut shells, it makes such a lovely sound but is still loud enough to get all the kiddos attention. I LOVE it!!!

and lastly this is my "song pail" in my song pail I have Popsicle sticks and on each Popsicle stick I have written down songs that I know.....I know A LOT of songs. Whenever we are needing a transition or just want to sing some songs I pick a friend to come select a song. It's fun and it helps me to not always sing the same songs over and over!!!

Ok...now how do you keep a classroom neat and organized when you have 3 and 4 year olds??? I will tell ya!! LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!!! Ok, I can hear ya now...."ummmm, they can't read" To you I say.....LABEL in PICTURES!!!
At our school we follow ECERS, and a part of that requires 70minutes of child-directed play. That means that for 70 minutes in our day all the children in our classroom are allowed to choose what and when they want to play with something. Now I don't know about you but I am a bit OCD and the thought of children taking out toys and having free range makes me squirm in my seat!!! With that said....I start my year off right.....label with pictures and explain to the kiddos that every toy has a home.

block area

magnet board

Block area/building zone

manipulative

I printed out wallet size pictures and taped one on the shelf and one on the toy bin itself! We are a month into school and all our toys still are in their homes!!